Kicking game miscues sink Falcons in loss to Summer Creek

On a day when Clear Lake hoped to get its kicks, special teams breakdowns led to the undoing of the Falcons in a Class 6A area football game Saturday at NRG Stadium.

Summer Creek blocked an extra point attempt and two field goal tries, twice denying Clear Lake the lead, as the Bulldogs escaped with a 28-19 victory in a Division II battle.

Summer Creek advances to play Cypress Creek at 7 p.m., Friday at Rice Stadium while the Falcons (6-6) see their season end at this stage for the second straight year.

Clear Lake kicker Nathan Eastin had a 25-yard field goal swatted away by Brandon Neal with two seconds left in the third quarter, and the Bulldogs’ Coral Dahl blocked a 47-yard attempt with 6:27 remaining in the game.

On each occasion, Lake trailed 21-19 and would have taken the lead had the kicks been true.

After the latter block, Summer Creek used quarterback Bryan Bush’s 51-yard run with 5:41 showing to open a 28-19 lead and seal the victory.

“I thought we had fixed that after the first time they blocked the extra point,” Falcon head coach Larry McRae said. “They had a guy sneaking through there, and we just didn’t close that gap down.

“They just got us.”

Bush, a fleet-footed sophomore, was a thorn in the Falcons’ side all day. He finished with 198 yards rushing on 31 carries while completing 7 of 11 passes for 87 yards and a touchdown.

Clear Lake had its own warrior to counter Bush’s productivity.

Falcon senior wide receiver Christian Marullo caught a 62-yard touchdown pass from Shae Suiaunoa with 5:01 left in the first quarter to pull Lake within 7-6, but that’s when the Falcons’ had their first PAT attempt blocked.

Summer Creek grabbed a 7-0 edge on a 22-yard touchdown pass from Bush to Jamison Frazier to cap a 63-yard drive on the game’s first possession. That score came just 1:15 into the contest.

Lake countered two possessions later, marching 92 yards for its score. A pair of nine-yard runs by Brendon Holmes and an 11-yard burst by Suiaunoa preceded the nifty 62-yard hookup for the touchdown at 5:01 of the first quarter.

Bush gave Summer Creek a 14-6 cushion at halftime when he scored on a 5-yard run with 8:25 left in the second quarter.

The Falcons received a huge boost at the outset of the second half when Marullo returned the third-quarter kickoff 79 yards for a touchdown.

The elusive senior eluded several defenders before outracing pursuit to the end zone to make it 14-12 just 12 seconds into the second half. Clear Lake opted to try to tie the game, but Suiaunoa’s two-point conversion pass fell incomplete.

That Falcon momentum lasted all of two minutes as Summer Creek found the end zone on its next possession at 9:52 of the quarter.

The four-play, 46-yard drive was finalized by Bush’s nine-yard run. The key installment in that march was an improvised 38-yard completion to the Falcon nine-yard line.

Lake then responded with its most impressive march of the day, a 71-yard, 17-play drive which featured completions of 14 yards to David Burton and 21 yards to Marullo, moving the ball to the Bulldog 36-yard line.

On fourth-and-one at the 27, Suiaunoa muscled his way for a long yard and a first down at the 26.

On the very next play, Marullo juked a Summer Creek defender with a stop-and-go move, and caught a 26-yard scoring strike from Suiaunoa to pull Lake within 21-18. Eastin’s PAT was true for a 21-19 score with 3:24 left in the third.

Lake then put together two more quality drives, but each ended with the blocked field goals. The first potential scoring march was set up by Sevon Roberson’s fumble recovery.

“It’s been a long ride,” Marullo said. “I’ve been playing with some of these dudes since I was six years old.

“It’s been fun, and I wouldn’t want to go out any other way than with my brothers here at NRG.”

Marullo said his pivotal scores weren’t anything specially designed.

“That’s just great coaches, a great staff and a lot of practice making that work,” the senior wide receiver said of his touchdown catches. “The kickoff return was a momentum-changer.

“But they’re a good team with good athletes. We lost, and it’s tough to take.”

Suiaunoa not being 100 percent healthy took away an additional threat to Lake’s running game.

“Shae’s a warrior-type kid, and he’s played through injuries all year,” McRae said. “We were still able to do a lot of the same stuff.

“We broke down in other areas. When I watched their quarterback live, I knew he was going to be tough to stop. We wrangled him a couple of times, but he broke some big ones on us.

“That’s a testament to the great program they have. They made big plays, and we didn’t quite get it done.”

Suiaunoa completed 11 of 28 passes for 205 yards and two scores while Holmes rushed 19 times for 50 yards. Marullo finished with six receptions for 132 yards.